A while back, we wrote about the value of proper staff induction training when onboarding new employees. Recent developments in workplace functions inspired us to look at how the process has changed over the last 2 years. What’s more, the emergence of remote working as a standard also necessitated certain changes.
The base formula still works
Of the elements we examined last time around, none have changed all that dramatically. We did introduce a slightly larger focus on ensuring that the necessary soft skills are prevalent in potential candidates. This meant that the fundamentals of company culture became easier to implement.
In addition to this, the advantages of proper staff induction remain as vital as ever, with virtually no downside other than the time spent conducting training and the associated reviewing.
Staff induction and remote working
For obvious reasons, it hasn’t been feasible of late to introduce new employees in person and take them on the grand tour. To counter this, we promoted regular socializing with colleagues more often. We also recommend frequent check-ins and discussion around both staff induction and non-related matters. The former aid in building good communication habits. The latter “water cooler” conversations help ease people together. Thankfully, both can be accommodated fairly easily with modern video conferencing tools.
Furthermore, we also found that it helps to turn colleagues’ names into actual people to remember when introducing them to the staff complement. An easy way to do this? Make mentions of each person’s regulars habits, or hobbies, or ever prowess with particular tasks. This humanizes your staff faster and more easily, and has the added advantage of making them far more memorable for the right reasons.
Get them to contribute early
Granted, new staff members probably won’t be able to do much from day one. They need time to learn your processes, your systems and how they fit into all your frameworks.
In that light, it’s a boon to staff induction to get new staff involved in something as soon as possible. This is even more important when the majority of your workforce functions remotely. We identified two useful ways to accomplish this.
The first is to have the begin with small task assignments. This can be data processing, non-critical maintenance or helping someone else in their tasks. The idea behind this is not to have them perform mundane functions. Rather, it helps to learn how those functions act as cogs in the larger wheel of your operations. You should ensure their designated assignments are thoroughly supervised, and where possible, ranked for efficiency and effectiveness. This helps lay down standards from the very beginning and lets them know where you’ve set the bars.
The second method is to prompt them to share their relevant knowledge. For example, a recent inductee indicated they had undergone a more up-to-date version of a training course prevalent among Adept’s technical personnel. When encouraged, they promised to share their recent experiences and compare them with colleagues. This means that the department they work in will benefit from the latest technical know-how. Another good example is to quiz new colleagues on the soft skills they have. If those skills aren’t common in your organization, perhaps it would be of great benefit to have them appropriately turned into a training module, which all staff members can then attend.
Staff induction creates better teams
If you have thorough induction training, you automatically create a certain amount of uniformity for both your personnel and processes. This can be a vital step towards fostering solid teams. A mix of the same soft skills and various practical skills, coupled with people who apply them in the ways they know best, is a strong recipe for troubleshooting, development and progress.
Making sure that new staff members have and learn everything they need to be fully functional and contributing colleagues is of paramount importance to Adept, and another reason why we’re a great employer!